


Audiometry (when you know, you know.)

by zetafic



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012-2013), Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Comics)
Genre: Canon Era, Childhood Trauma, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Novelization, Parent-Child Relationship, i don't know if that's the right tag for a piece so short but i'm going with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 16:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13103796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zetafic/pseuds/zetafic
Summary: Cold waves lap Gotham Harbor like they have all the time in the world. She doesn't make a sound.The famous "good soldier" scene, from Carrie's POV.





	Audiometry (when you know, you know.)

It's a good thing all the water's been wrung out of her by stunts and stretches because this is so **pants-wetting awful** words fail, sounds fail, everything is a white noise of don't fall don't die don't fall don't die, the wind is tearing at her and she can't hear it because it and the engines are **screaming** in her ears, the Wing is at at its limits too, don't fall don't die—and that's where it hits her, in the second before he hauls at the cape:

_Have you forgotten what happened to Jason?_

Then he pulls, and her heart **slams** against her throat to prove it hadn't been doing that hard enough before, and she's trying her damnedest to hold still even though every string in her brain has rerouted to the function of flashing **MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE.** Two seconds tick by in that excruciating flash, then the function rewrites to **MOVE NOW MOVE NOW MOVE NOW** and she's reaching, her fingers scrabbling and curling into his arm the same moments he catches her by the shoulder, her feet bumping against his legs and she climbs. She climbs and his arms come around to gather her in, for another second there's a hitch, an overshot, she's got her fingers curled against the cowl's ear; how stupid would it be if **that** came off, too?

Then he squeezes her tight, and she's slung both arms around his neck, now, and the gasps start, or she's just noticing them, though either way she has so little breath to spare. She buries her face in his shoulder as a few tears slip out. Clinging to the great Batman like a baby, trembling like a leaf. Only the sound of her shattered breathing **thick** in her ears, just held-back sobs, not so much as a whimper in it. White noise. White noise.

“Good soldier.”

Like something punched her in the gut, she lets out a real, low sob. It should be awful. He's used those words before, quick, final, on his way to something else. Putting the matter of a Robin's fate to rest. Does it make a difference that they come out ragged this time?

“Good soldier. I've got you.”

Something underneath the shaking goes limp. Her arms go tighter around his neck, but if it's too tight, he doesn't say. Only another, “Good soldier.” His voice cuts into the dry heaves of her fear, and she lets it all leak out of her, tears and sobs and snot.

The engines settle eventually; they must be out of the danger zone. He keeps repeating. She pushes her breathing back into steady shape, one repetition at a time.

There's a difference. She can hear it.

“ _Good soldier._ ”

They hang like that for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> From Wikipedia:
> 
> Audiometry (from Latin: _audīre_ , "to hear" and _metria_ , “to measure") is a branch of audiology and the science of measuring hearing acuity for variations in sound intensity and pitch.... Typically, audiometric tests determine a subject's hearing levels with the help of an audiometer, but may also measure ability to discriminate between different sound intensities, recognize pitch, or distinguish speech from background noise.


End file.
